Former Ward 36 Councillor Brian Ashton
By Ian Harvey
Brian Ashton is in his element.
Is there a better place than a Scarborough Tim Horton’s on Kingston Road in Cliffside to hold court and talk about his life in politics then and now?
Casual in a spiffy Danier bomber jacket, the swept back hair a little more gray, Ashton lights up when the conversation turns to his 26 years as the councillor for the area, first as Scarborough councillor in an 1984 by-election then in 1988 when he ran for the amalgamated Toronto council.
He went on to another seven elections before retiring in 2010 saying it was time to move on.
“I think it was time to refresh, to reset,” he says amid the hub-bub of Timmy’s as the mid-morning rush builds. “I don’t miss it. I miss the buzz but I don’t miss what’s going on there. I do miss being involved and having a forum though.”
He thought for a nanosecond about running for Mayor in 2010 but backed away because he though the financial cost would be too risky.
“I think I would have done alright but people can be bankrupted running for Mayor, it takes a lot of money,” he said.
President of CNE
Today, at 63, Ashton is busier than he thought he’d ever be, sitting as president of the Canadian National Exhibition and a director of the East Metro Youth Services, both volunteer positions.
A rare photo of Brian Ashton taking it easy
He spends his time reading, playing golf and going on cruises with his wife now his daughter has graduated university and, of course running back and forth from meetings.
“I was on the board of the CNE for the city and then as a director for the Ontario Restaurant and Food Services Association who are big stakeholders and then president,” he said.
The fair is only for 18 days but it takes almost a year of planning to program it, balancing the public demand for something new yet retaining the traditional flavours of features like the food building and the midway.
The CNE is a tenant of the city-owned Exhibition Place and actually makes money – about $5 million over five years. That’s changing, however, as the CNE shifts from being an arm’s length agency of the city to being an independent body.
“I thought I’d escaped,” he laughs. “But I’m getting sucked right back into city politics. Resistance is futile, it’s like the Borg.”
Opposed to casino at CNE
Top of the agenda is the city’s discussion around a casino, which among other locations has been proposed for either Ontario Place or the Exhibition Grounds. He favours the Toronto Convention Centre location for a couple of reasons, the biggest probably being that the Ex needs all the space it has now for the fair.
“We don’t have 35 acres out of the 192 we have to give to a casino,” he said. “We need parking because while we have a good transit split people still drive. And we need back lot for all the service vehicles and trailers. If we put a casino in there we wouldn’t have room for a corn dog cart or a midway.”
An Ontario Place location – already shot down once by the province – would also cast a shadow on the fair, he says.
Brian Ashton and wife Linda with former US President Bill Clinton
City Council painfully polarized
A self-described “fiscal conservative with a heart” Ashton’s not sure of what to make of the current council except that it’s painfully polarized and paralyzed politically.
There is, he says, a distinct lack of leadership willing to do the right thing no matter how painful it might be to their careers because painful choices have to be made in tough times.
His Wikipedia entry notes former fellow councilor and former MPP and Ontario Speaker Chris Stockwell once described Ashton as” A card-carrying Tory who talks like a Liberal and votes like a New Democrat.”
He thinks he’d either be cast as a left winger on the current council, or in the mush middle, then pauses to reflect.
“I think I’d be a swing vote,” he allows.
Colourful quotes
Always quick with a quip and media savvy, Ashton often had a zinger in his pocket and that hasn’t changed.
He once said putting windmills off the Bluffs in Lake Ontario would be “like splashing paint on the Mona Lisa” and, as a Police Commissioner asked to describe what the board was looking for in the next chief” Wyatt Earp with an MBA.”
His last years were controversial, at least around the horseshoe at City Hall. Allied with then-Mayor David Miller he was initially supportive of the car tax and land transfer tax.
When his constituents in Ward 36 started giving him an earful he backed off voting against both taxes and urged Miller to pursue serious spending cuts to balance the budget.
Brian Ashton with former Toronto Mayor David Miller
He was subject to savage personal attacks from the left leaning councilors such as Gord Perks who called him a “weasel” and even Miller who reportedly called him an “a*****.”
Ashton, however, stood his ground saying he’d listened to his constituents and it was the right thing to do. The upshot was his expulsion from Miller’s inner circle and the executive committee.
He was, however, unapologetic, and continued to revel in his maverick role.
He doesn’t mind at all – he would have made it an election plank if he’d run:
“I had the brochure idea ready to go: “David Miller Fired Me. I need a Job.”
